How Blue
by Oh Mina Obscener
Summary: Charlie and Claire find it hard to get any time alone at the camp...Everyone's been noticing that they just might be a couple! This is a bit awkward for them, though.
1. Default Chapter

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Lost or the characters or anything... sadly. besides, there's not another new episode until January 5th. So I would go insane without fics. Would you rather have me write about something that isn't mine or be insane? Definitely not the latter, trust me.

**A/N: **a regretfully short chapter.. Review if you want more!

**How Blue**

**Chapter One:**

Thomas hadn't always been good to her. Claire remembered as she looked at the night sky now, all the times she was afraid to say what was on her mind or give an opinion on anything. Not because he hated her. He told her that he loved her two, maybe three times a day. And late at night, when she lay in bed waiting for sleep that may never come, she would wonder why she stayed.

But love obviously wasn't enough to keep him from the blind rages he would have, screaming at her and breaking lamps and striking her across the face, leaving her sobbing on the floor, curled up in a little ball. Then he would have a drink or two. By now he was feeling slightly guilty of what he had done in the living room thirty minutes before. So, as always, he would go to the bedroom and apologize. Claire wouldn't accept after a few weeks of this, but she would instead count the stars on a painting that hug on the other side of the bedroom while Thomas was thrusting into her, obviously his idea of making up. He seemed to want her every night, and soon her pleas of "later" and "I'm too tired" were ignored.

She supposed that's how she came to be pregnant. One of those nights without protection, when Thomas was half-drunk or in too much of a bad mood to bother to listen to her. After they had found out, Thomas had gone uphill. He came home in a better mood, he was kind to her and demanded less every night. But that didn't last for long. Then of course, he left her.

She wanted to think of something else, but there wasn't any way around it. She was oblivious tot he fact that Charlie was watching her. She was sitting up, her blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders. The camp was very dark, as there was no moon that night, and the stars blinked distant and hazy. With a deep breath, Charlie told himself it was now or never and walked over to Claire.

"What's the matter love?" He asked in a whisper. He didn't know why he whispered, because it wasn't very late yet and he was sure no one was gone to bed. Fires burned brightly on the other side of camp. She looked up, a bit startled.

"Oh! Charlie, I didn't see you. Nothing's the matter.. Why?"

"I just happened to look over here and see you all hunched over like something was the matter. It's not like you to be away from the group." He nodded to the fires, where everyone sat.

"Oh, I was just .. You know.. Thinking, is all."

"Well I know this must sound terribly nosy and I'll forgive you if you wont say, but.. What were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking.." Claire said carefully...

"About my baby's father." She bit her lip and ran a hand over her stomach.

"Oh." Charlie was curious.

"What was he like?" He asked.

"Young.. Ambitious." Claire chose her words carefully. "Willful."

Charlie sat down beside her.

"Was he good to you?"

"No, not really." She said plainly.

This wasn't the answer he had been expecting.

"What?"

"Well he was very wilful, like I said. He had his own ideas of what he wanted, and nothing was going to get in his way, you know?"

"Oh, I see. So he never, like," Charlie paused. This was a bit awkward. "Hit you or anything though right?"

Claire looked at the ground.

Charlie's eyes widened. He didn't like to think of sweet little Claire getting hurt or beat up.

"He did?! My god Claire. Why the hell would he do that to you?" Charlie was mad now, he could feel himself getting warmer and warmer in the face with anger.

"Charlie, please, It wasn't that bad really." Claire said.

"Yea well, I don't care if it was. He still had no right to do that."

"Not the right, no, but the power." She said. Charlie thought for a moment.

"Did you leave him?"

"No, he left me." Claire's eyes filled with tears and Charlie could see how blue they were even in the dusk. It was clear that Claire was uncomfortable on the subject, so Charlie tried to calm down and talk of something different. He put a hand on her shoulder and shivered suddenly with a chilly breeze.

"You wanna share that blanket?" He asked. Claire smiled and shifted the fabric on her shoulders to accommodate one more. Charlie slipped under and wrapped his arm around her waist. A minute went by and neither said nothing. They both realized it was something special when a stretch of time without words spoken could be so comfortable. It was late. Charlie kept turning over in his mind events that he imagined concerning Claire's ex-boyfriend.

After a few minutes, Charlie decided he had had enough of this comfortable-silence business . Charlie took her chin in his hand and tilted her face up to meet his. Her eyes were the most pure blue reflections of life as he could ever imagine, and in that moment, their lips met. At first their kiss was tender and unsure, soon dissolving into a passionate frenzy. Claire's lips parted and she wrapped her arms around Charlie's neck. The intensity was seemingly a circle, unbreakable, and neither of them pulled away from the kiss. Suddenly there was a movement near them and they stopped short, breaking apart and trying to look casual. Jack broke through the bushes.

"There you two are." He said. Claire was glad it was dark so he couldn't see her flushed face.

"Wont you come and join us at the fire before everyone goes to bed? Or were you-talking... Oh.. I'm sorry." He retreated once he noticed they were under the same blanket and that he was clearly interrupting something.

"Oh, no, no." Claire said, standing up. Charlie followed her move and rose hastily.

"We'll come over for a while.." She continued casually.

"Alright, yea, great." Jack said.

Charlie gathered up the blanket and draped it over Claire's shoulders as they followed the doctor to the center of the camp.


	2. Vanish

1**Disclaimer:** I don't own Lost or the characters or anything... sadly. besides, there's not another new episode until January 5th. So I would go insane without fics. Would you rather have me write about something that isn't mine or be insane? Definitely not the latter, trust me.

**A/N:**

** How Blue **

**ChapterTwo:**

One might think that on an island it would be an easy thing to sneak a night together... Pick a spot, any spot and have a date. One might also assume that if a group of people had crashed on this island they might be a little more into themselves and not in a gossipy or observant mood. Both of these assumptions, however, would be very wrong.

Every look shared by Charlie and Claire was noticed and acknowledged sooner or later.

Charlie was thinking about this as he poked at a fire. He had been staring strait into the depth of the leaping orange flame, seeing how long it was before he had to blink. The color of the fire was intense, but all he could notice was the tiny blue edges that snuck in occasionally. They reminded him of the color of Claire's eyes... Her beautiful eyes... His own eyes were watering and hot when he looked up to see Hurley standing beside him.

"Hey dude..."

"Hey Hurley." Charlie blinked away the sting.

"So.. Uh.. I was thinking.. And I just wanted to ask you, what's going on with you and Claire?"

Charlie was a bit surprised at the outright bluntness of this inquiry, but then again it was Hurley.

"What? Me and Claire? Oh, nothing. Nothings_ going on._ Why?"

"Ok, whatever man, but.. It's kinda obvious, you know what I mean?" Hurley clapped his shoulder and laughed, turning away.

"_What's _obvious?" Charlie asked. He got up and called back to him.

"Hurley! What's obvious?!"

"That you got the hots for Claire, that's all." Came a familiar accent. Charlie spun back around to find Sawyer poking at the fire with the same stick he had been.

"Sawyer, I didn't see you coming-"

'No, you wouldn't would you.. You were too busy chasing Hurley around... Even _he_ noticed how you've been acting lately." Sawyer laughed.

"Acting like what?" Charlie asked, frustrated.

"You and the pregnant girl. Claire. You obviously are into her that's what." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Well don't act all shocked," Sawyer continued. " you're the one who's been chasing her around and getting her drinks for weeks."

"And why would I mind that Sawyer?" Claire asked from behind him. Charlie looked up and saw her sit down on a log situated near the fire.

"Claire I don't think we need to have this conversation with _him_..." Charlie protested, feeling the awkwardness of this arrangement.

"No, Charlie, I asked him something." She answered, looking at Charlie and then back to Sawyer.

"Alright Peaches," Sawyer grinned his usual cocky smirk."You know you've got a good man when he digs you when your _pregnan_t...I mean, you know he likes you for you and not what you have to offer, if you know what I mean...Because honey, no offense but at the moment your not exactly the best catch." He indicated to her pregnant stomach and then left.

"Claire, look I'm really sorry about him." Charlie rubbed his temples. The night was warm. He didn't know why he was sitting by a fire.

Claire laughed. "No, he's right."

"What?" Charlie asked.

"Well one of the things that so great about you is that you obviously want to know who I am... Not "what I can offer you"."

Charlie smiled. This was true.

"Claire, in case you didn't know not just Sawyer who noticed... you know..."

"Oh, yea I know, everyone's gossiping about you and me. We're quite the talk."

"Doesn't that make you mad?" Charlie asked.

"No. Not really. What else do they have to do here than sit and run their mouths about anything they find remotely interesting?" She looked up at the stars. Charlie looked over at her, intending to follow her gaze, only he was caught up when he looked at her. She gasped and pointed to the heavens. Charlie looked up quickly and found his eyes following a shooting star before it faded into the inky sky. She giggled in delight and scooted over to Charlie, who raised his eyebrows in surprise as she came almost into his lap, still staring upward. Gingerly he put his arms around her and was suddenly afraid she would get up to leave.

"Did you make a wish?" He asked.

"Of course I did! You did too right?"

"Definitely. Me and Liam would lay on our backs for hours in the backyard looking for shooting stars. That was when we were little, I must have been five. I would wish for everything, from a four-leaf clover to a four-wheeler." He laughed at the memory.

It was a strange thing, to be holding Claire in his arms and all he could think about was that maybe someone would unexpectedly walk past them. Claire obviously didn't care. This was a demonstration of her contentment. So why did he? Maybe it was because he felt that he wasn't good enough for Claire, and though she seemed not to see it, the others did? Especially the ones who knew about his drug addiction, the issues he had with his family, and the various other glitches in his life. After some thought he was sure this wasn't the root of his unease.

Maybe he felt so nervous about being with Claire was because he loved her. He was afraid to lose her, so very afraid. Subconsciously he wondered if he wasn't just a temporary source of comfort for Claire and that once a rescue ship dotted the horizon, she would tear away from him and run back to her old life, happy and like nothing had ever happened on the island, that the name Charlie didn't even ring a bell.

Charlie couldn't stand the thought. If this was so, and when it was all said and done, what would be have to go back to? His band? Not by the looks of it. His family? Ha! Yeah, right. The only thing he would have if Claire left him would be his guitar. He imagined being alone in a darkening apartment at five o'clock on a weekday evening, sitting in a chair and playing slow, sad chords to the high-pitched buzzing noise that filled his head. Once his fingers hurt to much to play anymore, he would walk over to the window and stare out at city streets, and look up to see smudged stars dotting a smog-filled sky. While looking and just breathing, he would remember what it was like to feel the warmth of Claire in his arms and the night sounds of the island as he looked up at the same night sky, only to clearer, brilliant stars.

Would that ever happen? Charlie wondered , as he tightened his grip around her. Maybe he would ask. Not like him, but it was an important subject.

"Claire?"

"Mm?"

"When you think of getting off this island, what do you think of?"

'What do you mean, Charlie?"

"Like, what will you do? Who will you go see, what will you do differently?"

"Well that all depends on if this little guy is born yet.. But wether he is or not, I'll still be alone." Her voice was sad. Was she fishing for an answer from him?

"What makes you think that? What about me?" He could almost feel the surprise course through her body.

"What, do you plan on coming home with me?" She laughed but somehow Charlie detected the seriousness of her voice.

"Well of course! Unless you don't want me to."

"I didn't think you liked me _that well_." She said.

"Claire..." Finding the right words were hard, and he was afraid to say the wrong thing..

"I think I love you."

Claire turned to face him, and in the firelight Charlie could see her widened eyes. How blue could they get, he wondered as he stared back, waiting for her reply.

" Charlie! Claire!" Came a yell as Sayid ran forward.

"Sayid, what is it?" Claire asked, seeing panic in the man's face.

"It's Jack. He's gone."

"Jack is gone? Where? Is he alright?" Charlie asked, his voice raised in concern.

"He's missing. Just vanished. Locke and I wanted to get everyone accounted for. Come with me!" The three of them ran back to the caves.

TBC

A/N: Sorry for the short chappy everyone! I've been busy lately and it's been a stretch even to accomplish this! Please leave me a review and I'll get strait to work on the (hopefully intriguing) next chapter!


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